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Business Efficiency

Universities May Be the Slowest-Moving Institutions on the Web. Our Sample Suggests Why.

38 university and education sites scanned — a small sample, but 76% legacy across every region. ASEAN education: 93% legacy. The pattern is consistent.

K
Kannan SP
· 5 min read
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Universities May Be the Slowest-Moving Institutions on the Web. Our Sample Suggests Why.
Key finding

Education sites on legacy frameworks: 29 of 38 (76%) (Source: WebPulse regional + ASEAN scans. WordPress (18) + Drupal (11) dominate across all regions.)

The Pattern

29 of 38 (76%)
Education sites on legacy frameworks
Source: WebPulse regional + ASEAN scans. WordPress (18) + Drupal (11) dominate across all regions.
13 of 14 (93%)
ASEAN education on legacy
Source: WebPulse ASEAN scan. UP, Ateneo (Drupal), UST, UGM, ITB, Chulalongkorn (WordPress).
Vietnam National University (Next.js)
Only modern education site in ASEAN
Source: WebPulse ASEAN scan. vnu.edu.vn — the sole exception.

Why Universities Don't Move

Universities have three constraints no other industry faces: procurement cycles measured in years, faculty governance over technology decisions, and student information systems that predate the web itself. A CMS migration at a university isn't a tech project — it's a political campaign.

The Cost of Not Moving

Student data on WordPress. Research data on Drupal 7 (EOL). Application portals on legacy PHP. Every one of these is a data protection incident waiting to happen. FERPA in the US, GDPR in Europe, DPDP in India — education institutions face the same compliance pressure as healthcare, with less budget and slower governance.

Compare frameworks in this analysis
WordPress vs Drupal WordPress vs Next.js Drupal vs Next.js
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